I have unsubscribed from Reuters World News and will no longer be following Reuters coverage after this episode. My family and friends are doing the same.
Listening to Reuters devote a segment to the struggles of russian tourism, interviewing russian business owners and vacationers about canceled holidays, fuel shortages, and declining profits—including in occupied Crimea—was appalling.
You started an episode referring to Crimea as “russia's holiday coast”. Crimea is Ukraine. It is not simply a travel destination for russians. It is occupied Ukrainian territory. Yet this report centered the discomfort of people vacationing in or profiting from that occupation, while barely acknowledging the reality that these inconveniences are the direct consequence of russia's own war of aggression.
The editorial framing was profoundly misguided. Rather than centering the victims of this war in Crimea, rather than focusing on Crimean tatars specifically, Reuters chose to humanize the inconveniences of citizens of the aggressor state, many of whom have benefited from or normalized the occupation of Ukrainian land.
There is a difference between reporting on the effects of war inside russia vs. producing a segment that invites listeners to empathize with the disruption of russian holidays on occupied territory. This crossed that line.
